Bringing you a variety of genealogical information, this blog forms a part of Annie Barnes' Hibbitt & Barnes Family History website and is a place where you can keep up-to-date with her latest research. Please subscribe.

If you have a blog or family history website of your own then displaying adverts via the various schemes available can be a good way of discovering new genealogy websites. Monitor the text adverts appearing on your site and make a note of the website address (note: don't click on the ads yourself or you'll most likely get penalised by the company running the ad scheme). Once you have the address, you can look up the sites at your leisure.

I came across a fairly new genealogy search engine called Mocavo in this way. This site is in its infancy but promises to be a useful tool as more and more resources are added to the site. Nevertheless, it's surprising what you can already find. One feature I found helpful is the search engine is picking up discussions posted by others to various message boards. This can often lead to connections and discoveries which you might not have otherwise made.

[Why Tuesday's Tip? This phrase has been included in the title in order to take part in Daily Blogging Prompts at Geneabloggers]

I'd known for a long time that my great-grandfather, Alfred Charles Newbold Hibbitt (see right), was a Coastguard and I'd already obtained a copy of his Naval Service record some while ago from the National Archives DocumentsOnline facility. The record, however, ends on 30th April 1919 and a note appears at the bottom stating, "Transferred to Coast Guards (New Force) (see Special Register)". My next question was, "Where was this register and how could I view it?"

Well, I recently discovered the Digital Microfilm records, which the National Archives have made available on their website free of charge. These records are in PDF format and aren't indexed so you have to scroll through the pages in much the same way you would a microfilm......Read more »

In addition, they've also published over 500,000 soldiers' records in their Militia Service Records 1806-1915. The Militia was a voluntary county-based part-time force for home defence. It ceased to be summoned after the Civil War but was revived in 1757, when the Militia Act established militia regiments in all counties of England and Wales.

1909 - James Horn, son of my 5 x great-grandparents William Horn and Ann (nee Bayley), died 102 years ago on 8th July at the age of 80. He was buried in the churchyard at St Mary's Church, Black Torrington, Devon.

1798 - 213 years ago, Joseph Fryer, son of my 7 x great-grandparents, died. He was buried in St Mary the Virgin's Churchyard in Arlingham, Gloucestershire, in the same tomb as that of his parents, John FRYER (b. abt 1695) and Mary (nee KING). Unfortunately, Joseph's name is no longer visible on the tomb but details of the inscription were recorded in the document, 'Arlingham: Memorial Inscriptions' by MLK Curtis in 1993. Comparing the memorial inscription to the burial date in the parish register, it would appear Joseph was buried the day before he died!!! That's not too clever.

1832 - Ann Davis (nee Fryer), died 179 years ago and was also buried in St Mary the Virgin's Churchyard in Arlingham. The inscription on the headstone reads...

"Sacred to the memory of
ANN DAVIS, daughter of
JOHN & CAROLINE FRYER,
of Overton in this parish,
who died July 12th 1832,
aged 24 years.
Behold you that liveth"

Today my focus is on the excellent SEAX website. For those who haven't come across SEAX before, this website holds the online computerised catalogue for the Essex Record Office (ERO) located in Chelmsford, and can be accessed at http://seax.essexcc.gov.uk.

Although SEAX contains descriptions of documents, it doesn't contain the actual text within them. However, the ERO are continually scanning their collections and adding them to the system so they can be viewed online – and the best bit is that these scans of the original documents are free to view......Read more »

Ancestry is allowing free access to its National Probabte Calendar, 1861-1941 collection until 8th July. You can search the indexes to see where and when your ancestors died, see the original records to discover how much they left behind, and use the information to order their full wills and probate records from the Principal Probate Registry.

1720 - My 8 x great-grandmother, Mary, the wife of Richard Fryer (abt 1663-1710), died on 1st July, 291 years ago, and was buried 2 days later in the churchyard at St Mary the Virgin in Arlingham, Gloucestershire (right). Mary's maiden name is a little uncertain but she may have been Mary Haines. The parish registers for Leonard Stanley recorded a marriage of a Richard Ffrier to a Mary Haines on 23rd February 1690, a year before the baptism of their first child.

1788 - Stephen Dando & Elizabeth Jones were married at Dursley, Gloucestershire, this day 223 years ago. Stephen was the youngest son of my 6 x great-grandparents, John and Susanna Dando. Stephen was a hat maker and ran his father's business after John died. A claim to fame is that Stephen was baptized by the famous religious leader, George Whitefield, at Dursley Tabernacle on 25th June 1760. Go to Stephen's biography page to find out more.

1992 - My gran, Ivy Alice Hibbitt (nee Dando), died at Derriford Hospital in Plymouth, Devon, 19 years ago at the age of 87. Gran was a stickler for proper grammar but did like to play with words and used to have lots of amusing sayings which never ceased to tickle me.

1910 - my great-aunt, Doris May Geake, was born on 2nd July and would have been 101 years old this year. Doris married twice, her first husband, Tom Bishop, having died, she later became Doris Gwyn.

3rd JULY

1942 - John Smale was the son of my 3 x great-grandparents, William Smale & Mary Jane (nee Moore). John died on 3rd July 1942. I discovered his grave quite by chance in Plymouth Road Cemetery, Tavistock, Devon, after I'd been visiting the graves of other family members.

1849 - Hannah Warren (nee Fryer) died 162 years ago on the 7th July and was buried 3 days later in the churchyard at St Mary the Virgin, Fretherne, Gloucestershire. Hannah was the daughter of John Fryer (abt 1762-1816), my 5 x great-grandfather, and his second wife, Caroline.